Thou ever hast opposed all thy might
Against contention, fury, pride and wrong;
Persuading still to hold the course of right;
And peace hath been the burden of thy song.
And now thyself shalt have the benefit
Of quietness, which thou hast wanted long;
And now shalt have calm peace, and union
With thine own wars; and now thou must go on.

Only the joy of this so dear a thing

Made me look back unto the cause, whence came
This so great good, the blessing of a king;
When our estate so much requir'd the same :
When we had need of pow'r for th' well ord'ring
Of our affairs: need of a spir't to frame
The world to good, to grace and worthiness,
Out of this humour of luxuriousness :

And bring us back unto ourselves again,
Unto our ancient native modesty,
From out these foreign sins we entertain,
These loathsome surfeits, ugly gluttony;
From this unmanly, and this idle vein
Of wanton and superfluous bravery;
The wreck of gentry, spoil of nobleness;
And square us by thy temp'rate soberness.

When abstinence is fashion'd by the time,
It is no rare thing to be abstinent :

He hath a mighty burden to sustain
Whose fortune doth succeed a gracious prince;
Or where men's expectations entertain
Hopes of more good, and more beneficence:
But yet he undergoes a greater pain,

A more laborious work; who must commence
The great foundation of a government,
And lay the frame of order and content.

Especially where men's desires do run
A greedy course of eminency, gain,
And private hopes; weighing not what is done
For the republic, so themselves may gain
Their ends; and where few care who be undone,
So they be made: whilst all do entertain
The present motions that this passage brings,
With th' infancy of change, under new kings.
So that the weight of all seems to rely
Wholly upon thine own discretion;
Thy judgment now must only rectify
This frame of pow'r thy glory stands upon :
From thee must come, that thy posterity
May joy this peace, and hold this union:
For whilst all work for their own benefit,
Thy only work must keep us all upright,

For did not now thy full maturity

Of years and wisdom, that discern what shows,

Lies prostrate unto all misgovernment.
And who is not licentious in the prime
And heat of youth, nor then incontinent
When out of might he may, he never will;
No pow'r can tempt him to that taste of ill.

Then what are we t'expect from such a hand,
That doth this stern of fair example guide?
Who will not now shame to have no command
Over his lusts? who would be seen t' abide
Unfaithful to his vows; t' infringe the band
Of a most sacred knot which God hath ty'd?
Who would now seem to be dishonoured
With th' unclean touch of an unlawful bed?

What a great check will this chaste court be now
To wanton courts debauch'd with luxury;
Where we no other mistresses shall know,
But her to whom we owe our loyalty?
Chaste mother of our princes, whence do grow
Those righteous issues, which shall glorify
And comfort many nations with their worth,
To her perpetual grace that brought them forth.
We shall not fear to have our wives distain'd,
Nor yet our daughters violated here
By an imperial lust, that b'ing unrein'd,
Will hardly be resisted any where.

He will not be betray'd with ease, nor train'd
With idle rest, in soft delights to wear

His time of life; but knows whereto he tends;
How worthy minds are made for worthy ends.
And that this mighty work of Union, now
Begun with glory, must with grace run on,
And be so clos'd, as all the joints may grow
Together firm in due proportion:

A work of pow'r and judgment, that must show All parts of wisdom and discretion,

That man can show; that no cloud may impair This day of hope, whose morning shows so fair.

Secure our trust that that clear judgment knows,
Upon what grounds depend thy majesty,
And whence the glory of thy greatness grows;
We might distrust, lest that a side might part
Thee from thyself, and so surprise thy heart.
Since thou 'rt but one, and that against thy breast
Are laid all th' engines both of skill and wit;
And all th' assaults of cunning are address'd,
With stratagems of art, to enter it;

To make a prey of grace, and to invest
Their pow'rs within thy love; that they might sit,
And stir that way which their affection tends,
Respecting but themselves and their own ends.

And see'ng how difficult a thing it is

To rule; and what strength is requir'd to stand
Against all th' interplac'd respondences
Of combinations, set to keep the hand
And eye of Pow'r from out the provinces,
That Avarice may draw to her command;
Which, to keep hers, she others vows to spare,
That they again to her might use like care.
But God that rais'd thee up to act this part,
Hath giv'n thee all those pow'rs of worthiness,
Fit for so great a work; and fram'd thy heart
Discernible of all apparencies;

Taught thee to know the world, and this great art
Of ord'ring man: knowledge of knowledges!
That from thee men might reckon how this state
Became restor'd, and was made fortunate.

That thou the first with us in name, might'st be
The first in course, to fashion us a-new;
Wherein the times hath offer'd that to thee,
Which seldom t' other princes could accrue.
Thou hast th' advantage only to be free,
T'employ thy favours where they shall be due;
And to dispose they grace in general,
And like to Jove, to be alike to all.

Thy fortune hath indebted thee to none, But t' all thy people universally;

And not to them, but for their love alone, Which they account is placed worthily.

Nor wilt thou now frustrate their hopes, whereon
They rest; nor they fail in their loyalty:
Since no prince comes deceived in his trust,
But he that first deceives, and proves unjust.

Then since we are in this so fair a way
Of restoration, greatness, and command;
Cursed be he that causes the least stay
In this fair work, or interrupts thy hand;
And cursed he that offers to betray
Thy graces, or thy goodness to withstand;
Let him be held abhorr'd, and all his race
Inherit but the portion of disgrace.

And he that shall by wicked offices
Be th' author of the least disturbancy,
Or seek t' avert thy godly purposes,
Be ever held the scorn of infamy.
And let men but consider their success,
Who princes' loves abus'd presumptuously;
They shall perceive their ends do still relate,

That sure God loves them not, whom men do hate.

And it is just, that they who make a prey

Of princes' favours, in the end again
Be made a prey to princes; and repay
The spoils of misery with greater gain:
Whose sacrifices ever do allay

The wrath of men conceiv'd in their disdain :
For that their hatred prosecuteth still

More than ill princes, those that make them ill.

But both thy judgment and estate doth free
Thee from these pow'rs of fear and flattery,
The conquerors of kings; by whom, we see,
Are wrought the acts of all impiety.
Thou art so set, as thou'st no cause to be
Jealous, or dreadful of disloyalty:
The pedestal whereon thy greatness stands,
Is built of all our hearts, and all our hands.

TO

SIR THOMAS EGERTON, KNIGHT:
LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND.

WELL hath the powerful hand of majesty,
Thy worthiness, and England's hap beside,
Set thee in th' aidfull'st room of dignity;
As th' isthmus these two oceans to divide,
Of rigour and confus'd uncertainty,
To keep out th' intercourse of wrong and pride,
That they ingulf not up unsuccour'd right,
By th' extreme current of licentious might.

Now when we see the most combining band,
The strongest fast'ning of society,

Law, whereon all this frame of men doth stand,
Remain concussed with uncertainty;
And seem to foster, rather than withstand
Contention; and embrace obscurity,
Only t' afflict, and not to fashion us,
Making her cure far worse than the disease:

As if she had made covenant with wrong,
To part the prey made on our weaknesses;
And suffer'd falsehood to be arm'd as strong
Unto the combat, as is righteousness;
Or suited her, as if she did belong
Unto our passions; and did ev'n profess
Contention, as her only mystery,

Which she restrains not, but doth multiply.

Was she the same sh' is now, in ages past?
Or was she less, when she was used less;
And grows as malice grows; and so comes cast
Just to the form of our unquietness?

Or made more slow, the more that strife runs fast;
Staying t' undo us, ere she will redress?
That th' ill she checks, seems suffer'd to be ill,
When it yields greater gain than goodness will.
Must there be still some discord mix'd among
The harmony of men; whose mood accords
Best with contention, tun'd t' a note of wrong?
That when war fails, peace must make war with words,
And b' arm'd unto destruction ev'n as strong
As were in ages past our civil swords:
Making as deep, although unbleeding wounds;
That when as fury fails, wisdom confounds.

If it be wisdom, and not cunning, this
Which so embroils the state of truth with brawls,
And wraps it up in strange confusedness;
As if it liv'd immur'd within the walls
Of hideous terms, fram'd out of barb'rousness
And foreign customs, the memorials
Of our subjection; and could never be
Deliver'd but by wrangling subtilty.

Whereas it dwells free in the open plain,
Uncurious, gentle, easy of access :
Certain unto itself; of equal vein;
One face, one colour, one assuredness.
It 's falsehood that is intricate and vain,
And needs these labyrinths of subtleness:
For where the cunning'st cov'rings most appear,
It argues still that all is not sincere.

Which thy clear-ey'd experience well descries,
Great keeper of the state of equity!
Refuge of mercy! upon whom relies
The succour of oppressed misery:
Altar of safeguard! Whereto affliction flies,
From th' eager pursuit of severity.
Haven of peace! That labour'st to withdraw
Justice from out the tempests of the law;

And set her in a calm and even way,
Plain, and directly leading to redress;
Barring these counter-courses of delay,
These wasting, dilatory processes.
Ranging into their right and proper ray,
Errours, demurs, essoigns, and traverses;
The heads of hydra, springing out of death,
That gives this monster Malice still new breath.

That what was made for the utility

And good of man, might not be turned t' his hurt,
To make him worser by his remedy,

And cast him down with what should him support.
Nor that the state of law might lose thereby
The due respect and rev'rence of her port;
And seem a trap to catch our ignorance,

And to entangle our intemperance.

Since her interpretations, and our deeds,
Unto a like infinity arise;

As being a science that by nature breeds
Contention, strife, and ambiguities.
For altercation controversy feeds,
And in her agitation multiplies:
The field of cavil lying all like wide,
Yields like advantage unto either side.

Which made the grave Castilian king devise
A prohibition, that no advocate
Should be convey'd to th' Indian colonies;
Lest their new setting, shaken with debate,
Might take but slender root, and so not rise
To any perfect growth of firm estate.
"For having not this skill how to contend,
Th' unnourish'd strife would quickly make an end."

So likewise did th' Hungarian, when he saw
These great Italian Bartolists, who were
Call'd in of purpose to explain the law,

T' embroil it more, and make it much less clear;
Caus'd them from out his kingdom to withdraw,
With this infestious skill, some other-where;
Whose learning rather let men further out,
And open'd wider passages of doubt.

Seeing ev'n injustice may be regular ;
And no proportion can there be betwixt
Our actions, which in endless motion are,
And th' ordinances, which are always fix'd:
Ten thousand laws more cannot reach so far
But malice goes beyond, or lives immix'd
So close with goodness, as it ever will
Corrupt, disguise, or counterfeit it still.

And therefore did those glorious monarchs (who
Divide with God the style of majesty,
For being good; and had a care to do
The world right, and succour honesty,)
Ordain this sanctuary, whereunto

Th' oppress'd might fly; this seat of equity,
Whereon thy virtues sit with fair renown,
The greatest grace and glory of the gown.

Which equity, being the soul of law,
The life of justice, and the spir't of right;
Dwells not in written lines; or lives in awe
Of books' deaf pow'rs, that have nor ears nor sight:
But out of well weigh'd circumstance doth draw
-The essence of a judgment requisite ;

And is that Lesbian square, that building fit,
Plies to the work, nor forc'th the work to it.

Maintaining still an equal parallel
Just with th' occasions of humanity,
Making her judgment ever liable
To the respect of peace and amity;
When surely law, stern and unaffable,
Cares only but itself to satisfy;
And often innocencies scarce defends,
As that which on no circumstance depends.

But equity, that bears an even rein
Upon the present courses, holds in awe
By giving hand a little; and doth gain,
By a gentle relaxation of the law:
And yet inviolable doth maintain
The end whereto all constitutions draw,
Which is the welfare of society,
Consisting of an upright policy:

Which first b'ing by necessity compos'd,
Is by necessity maintain'd in best estate;
Where when as justice shall be ill dispos'd,
It sickens the whole body of the state:
For if there be a passage once disclos'd,
That wrong may enter at the self-same gate
Which serves for right, clad in a coat of law;
What violent distempers may it draw?

And therefore dost thou stand to keep the way,
And stop the course that malice seeks to run,
And by thy provident injunctions stay
This never-ending altercation;

Sending contention home, to th' end men may
There make their peace, whereas their strife begun;
And free these pester'd streets they vainly wear,
Whom both the state and theirs do need elsewhere.

Lest th' humour which doth thus predominate,
Convert unto itself all that it takes;
And that the law grow larger than debate,
And come t' exceed th' affairs it undertakes:
As if the only science of the state,

That took up all our wits, for gain it makes;
Not for the good that hereby may be wrought,
Which is not good if it be dearly bought.

What shall we think, when as ill causes shall
Enrich men more, and shall be more desir'd
Than good; as far more beneficial?
Who then defends the good? Who will be hir'd
To entertain a right, whose gain is small?
Unless the advocate that hath conspir'd
To plead a wrong, be likewise made to run
His client's chance, and with him be undone.

So did the wisest nations ever strive
To bind the hands of Justice up so hard;
That lest she falling to prove lucritive,
Might basely reach them out to take reward:
Ordaining her provisions fit to live,
Out of the public; as a public guard,
That all preserves, and all doth entertain;
Whose end is only glory, and not gain.

That ev'n the sceptre, which might all command,
Seeing her s' unpartial, equal, regular;
Was pleas'd to put itself into her hand,
Whereby they both grew more admired far.
And this is that great blessing of this land,
That both the prince and people use one bar;
The prince, whose cause (as not to be withstood)
Is never bad, but where himself is good.

This is that balance which committed is
To thy most even and religious hand,
Great minister of Justice! who by this
Shalt have thy name still gracious in this land.
This is that seal of pow'r which doth impress
Thy acts of right, which shall for ever stand!
This is that train of state, that pompously
Attends upon thy rev'rent dignity!

All glory else besides ends with our breath;
And men's respects scarce bring us to our grave:
But this of doing good, must out-live Death,
And have a right out of the right it gave.
Though th' act but few, th' example profiteth
Thousands, that shall thereby a blessing have.
The world's respect grows not but on deserts;
Pow'r may have knees, but Justice hath our hearts.

TO THE

LORD HENRY HOWARD,

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRIVY COUNCIL.

PRAISE, if it be not choice, and laid aright,
Can yield no lustre where it is bestow'd;
Not any way can grace the giver's art,
(Though 't be a pleasing colour to delight,)
For that no ground whereon it can be show'd,
Will bear it well, but virtue and desert.

And though I might commend your learning, wit,
And happy utt'rance; and commend them right,
As that which decks you much, and gives you grace,
Yet your clear judgment best deserveth it,
Which in your course hath carried you upright,
And made you to discern the truest face,

And best complexion of the things that breed
The reputation and the love of men ;
And held you in the tract of honesty,
Which ever in the end we see succeed;
Though oft it may have interrupted been,
Both by the times, and men's iniquity.

For sure those actions which do fairly run
In the right line of honour, still are those
That get most clean and safest to their end;
And pass the best without confusion,
Either in those that act, or else dispose;
Having the scope made clear, whereto they tend.

When this by-path of cunning doth s' embroil,
And intricate the passage of affairs,
As that they seldom fairly can get out;
But cost, with less success, more care and toil;
Whilst doubt and the distrusted cause impairs
Their courage, who would else appear more stout.

For though some hearts are blinded so, that they
Have divers doors whereby they may let out
Their wills abroad without disturbancy,
Int' any course, and into ev'ry way
Of humour, that affection turns about;
Yet have the best but one t' have passage by;

And that so surely warded with the guard
Of conscience and respect, as nothing must
Have course that way, but with the certain pass
Of a persuasive right; which being compar'd
With their conceit, must thereto answer just,
And so with due examination pass.

Which kind of men, rais'd of a better frame,
Are more religious, constant, and upright;
And bring the ablest hands for any 'ffect;
And best bear up the reputation, fame,
And good opinion that the action 's right,
When th' undertakers are without suspect.

But when the body of an enterprise
Shall go one way, the face another way;
As if it did but mock a weaker trust;
The motion being monstrous, cannot rise
To any good; but falls down to bewray,
That all pretences serve for things unjust:

Especially where th' action will allow
Apparency; or that it hath a course
Concentric, with the universal frame
Of men combin'd: whom it concerneth how
These motions run, and entertain their force ;
Having their being resting on the same.

And be it that the vulgar are but gross;
Yet are they capable of truth, and see,

And sometimes guess the right; and do conceive
The nature of that text that needs a gloss,
And wholly never can deluded be:

All may a few; few cannot all deceive.

And these strange disproportions in the train
And course of things, do evermore proceed
From th' ill-set disposition of their minds;
Who in their actions cannot but retain
Th' encumber'd forms which do within them breed,
And which they cannot show but in their kinds.

Whereas the ways and counsels of the light
So sort with valour and with manliness,
As that they carry things assuredly,
Undazzling of their own or others' sight:
There being a blessing that doth give success
To worthiness, and unto constancy.

And though sometimes th' event may fall amiss,
Yet shall it still have honour for th' attempt;
When craft begins with fear, and ends with shame,
And in the whole design perplexed is:
Virtue, though luckless, yet shall 'scape contempt;
And though it hath not hap, it shall have fame.

TO

THE LADY MARGARET,

COUNTESS OF CUMBERLAND.

He that of such a height hath built his mind,
And rear'd the dwelling of his thoughts so strong,
As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame
Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind
Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong
His settled peace, or to disturb the same:
What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may
The boundless wastes and weilds of man survey?

And with how free an eye doth he look down
Upon these lower regions of turmoil ?
Where all the storms of passions mainly beat
On flesh and blood: where honour, power, renown,
Are only gay afflictions, golden toil;
Where greatness stands upon as feeble feet,
As frailty doth; and only great doth seem
To little minds, who do it so esteem.

He looks upon the mightiest monarch's wars
But only as on stately robberies;

Where evermore the fortune that prevails
Must be the right: the ill-succeeding mars
The fairest and the best fac'd enterprise.
Great pirate Pompey lesser pirates quails :
Justice, he sees, (as if seduced) still

Conspires with power, whose cause must not be ill.

He sees the face of right t' appear as manifold
As are the passions of uncertain man;
Who puts it in all colours, all attires,

To serve his ends, and make his courses hold.
He sees, that let deceit work what it can,
Plot and contrive base ways to high desires;
That the all-guiding Providence doth yet
All disappoint, and mocks the smoke of wit.

Nor is he mov'd with all the thunder-cracks
Of tyrants' threats, or with the surly brow
Of Pow'r, that proudly sits on others' crimes :
Charg'd with more crying sins than those he checks.
The storms of sad confusion, that may grow
Up in the present for the coming times,
Appal not him; that hath no side at all,
But of himself, and knows the worst can fall.

Although his heart (so near ally'd to earth)
Cannot but pity the perplexed state
Of troublous and distress'd mortality,
That thus make way unto the ugly birth
Of their own sorrows, and do still beget
Affliction upon imbecility:

Yet seeing thus the course of things must run,
He looks thereon not strange, but as fore-done.

And whilst distraught ambition compasses,
And is encompass'd; whilst as craft deceives,
And is deceiv'd: whilst man doth ransack man,
And builds on blood, and rises by distress;
And th' inheritance of desolation leaves
To great-expecting hopes: he looks thereon,
As from the shore of peace, with unwet eye,
And bears no venture in impiety.

Thus, madam, fares that man, that hath prepar'd
A rest for his desires; and sees all things
Beneath him; and hath learn'd this book of man,
Full of the notes of frailty; and compar'd
The best of glory with her sufferings:
By whom, I see, you labour all you can

To plant your heart; and set your thoughts as near
His glorious mansion, as your pow'rs can bear.
Which, madam, are so soundly fashioned
By that clear judgment, that hath carry'd you
Beyond the feeble limits of your kind,
As they can stand against the strongest head
Passion can make; inur'd to any hue

The world can cast; that cannot cast that mind
Out of her form of goodness, that doth see
Both what the best and worst of earth can be.

Which makes, that whatsoever here befalls,
You in the region of yourself remain :
Where no vain breath of th' impudent molests,
That hath secur'd within the brazen walls
Of a clear conscience, that (without all stain)
Rises in peace, in innocency rests;
Whilst all what Malice from without procures,
Shows her own ugly heart, but hurts not yours.

And whereas none rejoice more in revenge,
Than women use to do; yet you well know,
That wrong is better check'd by being contemn'd,
Than being pursu'd; leaving to him t' avenge,
To whom it appertains. Wherein you show
How worthily your clearness hath condemn'd
Base malediction, living in the dark,
That at the rays of goodness still doth bark.

THOUGH Virtue be the same when low she stands
In th' humble shadows of obscurity,

As when she either sweats in martial bands,
Or sits in court clad with authority:
Yet, madam, doth the strictness of her room
Greatly detract from her ability;
For as in-wall'd within a living tomb,
Her hands and arms of action labour not;
Her thoughts, as if abortive from the womb,
Come never born, though happily begot.
But where she hath mounted in open sight
An eminent and spacious dwelling got;
Where she may stir at will, and use her might,
There is she more herself, and more her own;
There in the fair attire of honour dight,
She sits at ease, and makes her glory known.
Applause attends her hands; her deeds have grace;
Her worth, new-born, is straight as if full grown.